<p>CrewDad, Vassar’s President Hill wrote in September 2011 that 63.5% (see above) of Vassar students were on financial aid, so this means that 36.5% were full-paying. According to Vassar’s website, 56% of current freshmen are on financial aid, meaning that 44% are full paying.</p>
<p>Do we see the 36.5% figure rounded up to the 37% you mentioned in your post for “10-11”? That would mean that this year’s freshman class has not yet been added to the figures.</p>
<p>If I am interpreting this correctly, your figures show that the percentage of full paying students has been increasing over the last few years from 37% to 39% to 41% and now to 44% at a time when the number of Pell Grant recipients who have enrolled has been increasing. This means the middle class is getting squeezed out. This is what I’ve been saying throughout this thread, and I blame increased enrollment of wealthy students, who are already way over-represented on campus.</p>
<p>I understand that there was a big drop in the enrollment of wealthy students when Vassar became need-blind, but we would have to go back to 07-08 to find a class with a lower percentage of students on financial aid than this year’s freshman class. That doesn’t sound good to me.</p>
<p>Now, the only data we need is the percentage of Vassar students on Pell Grants for each year. With that information, we would finally be able to see how enrollment of middle class students on financial aid has changed over the years and compare the numbers to enrollments of Pell Grant students and wealthy students.</p>
<p>CrewDad, do you have access to that data? That data would complete the puzzle. </p>
<p>I was unaware that so many low-income students were enrolled at elite private high schools. I agree with you, CrewDad, that the low-income Pell Grant students from top prep schools probably aren’t bringing down the SAT score averages. </p>
<p>But if it isn’t the Pell grant students, who is bringing down the SAT score averages? Certainly not the small number of middle class students I know at Vassar.</p>